Five things we learned from Barcelona’s Champions League win over Chelsea

 

Barcelona 3 Chelsea 0 (4-1 agg): Barca, and in particular Lionel Messi, were too good for Chelsea and their Champions League run goes on

Barcelona proved too good for Chelsea at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night, ending the Blues’ run in Europe with a 3-0 win on the night and a 4-1 aggregate victory.

Lionel Messi struck within three minutes, slamming the ball through Thibaut Courtois’s legs, before Ousmane Dembele fired a second into the top corner to round off a swift counter-attack, and Messi rounded off the night with another low drive.

Chelsea had their moments but a memorable comeback wasn’t to be, and their focus will now return to qualifying for next year’s competition. 

Still life in Barca’s midfield maestros

On this day 13 months ago, Barcleona were run ragged by Paris Saint-Germain and lost 4-0 in Paris. The obituaries rolled out, particularly for their midfield trio of Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Andre Gomes, with the senior pair looking cooked and their careers at this level in doubt.

We all know what happened a couple of weeks later at the Camp Nou. Now, Barca sit on top of La Liga and arrive in the Champions League quarter-finals as one of the favourites to win the tournament. Iniesta and Busquets were instrumental here, controlling the ball and making Chelsea chase like they’ve made so many teams chase over the years.

There is still a good case for Barca needing more energy throughout the side, and senior players will soon need replacing, but there is clearly still plenty of life in their old guard yet.  

It’s the little things

Champions League knockout ties between Europe’s biggest clubs tend to come down to the little things, and that is where Barcelona made their superiority count.

If Courtois’s legs were a couple of inches closer together then perhaps Lionel Messi wouldn’t have scored his opener. Had N’Golo Kante not tackled Cesc Fabregas when his teammate was in on goal, perhaps Chelsea might have pulled one back. Likewise only the width of the post denied Marcos Alonso’s precise free-kick shortly before half-time.Chelsea might say this could have been a whole lot closer on another night, but the truth is that Barcelona are brilliant at the little things, and that reliability underpins their ability to deliver on these occasions.

 Giroud is a weakened weapon in Europe

There were several moments on the night when Chelsea worked the ball back to Courtois to get out of trouble, who booted it long for Giroud. That is fine as a tactic, except for the fact that almost every time Giroud leapt in the vicinity of a Barcelona defender, he conceded a foul.
This was in part down to his overzealous attempts to win the ball but also partly down to the referee’s harsh assessment. In the Premier League Giroud’s physicality is a potent weapon, but in Europe, where officials are less likely to let a rambunctious challenge go, he is a far less effective tool.

                                         Gomes returns to a standing ovation

Andre Gomes gave an interview last week explaining how much he has suffered as a Barcelona player. He was so ashamed of his performances that he wouldn’t leave his house, he told Panenka magazine, and said his time at Barcelona had been “a kind of hell”.o it was wonderful to hear the loudest roar of the night at the Camp Nou reserved for his appearance off the bench in the second half. The same fans who had booed his entrance against Atletico Madrid earlier this month took to their feet and the volume rose to salute a footballer brave enough to take on the stigma around sportsmen and mental health. It was a genuinely spine-tingling, heartwarming moment.
Messi. Just Messi.It was another memorable night for Messi who scored his 99th and 100th Champions League goals – in 123 games – which both skidded through Courtois’s legs. He is still some way behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 117, mind, and that race will go on a few more years yet.It will be fascinating to see how Messi evolves from here. While Ronaldo has moved further and further forwards into something of a robotic goal machine, Messi’s qualities seem more suited to a shuffle back down the pitch, filling Iniesta’s slippers in midfield. He has the touch, passing range and awareness to play as a No8 when the acceleration finally goes, yet his second goal showed that those 30-year-old legs are still lethally quick. This learning may shock you: Messi is not done scoring lots and lots of goals. His days as a midfield conductor a little way off.